OTTAWA — Parents should lose custody of children who suffer from life-threatening obesity, obesity specialists argue in a leading medical journal.

The opinion piece, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Wednesday by Lindsey Murtagh of the Harvard School of Public Health and Dr. David Ludwig of the Children’s Hospital in Boston, said putting children with severe obesity in foster care would act in the best interest of the child.

“In severe instances of childhood obesity, removal from the home may be justifiable from a legal standpoint because of imminent health risks and the parents’ chronic failure to address medical problems,” the article said.

The authors write that improper dietary practices that cause malnourishment and a failure to thrive fall under the definition of neglect and child abuse.

However, Ottawa psychologist Dr. Maggie Mamen says breaking up families is not the solution.

“We need to stand behind parents,” said Mamen, who is the author of The Pampered Child Syndrome. She explains that children today have more say in decisions and parents need to regain their confidence to be in control, which includes setting rules and a good example about healthy eating habits and exercise.

“It’s a parent’s decision what food is placed on the table, what food is in the fridge, what food is brought home from the grocery stores, especially when our children are younger,” said Mamen, adding there’s no point in nagging children to pursue healthier lifestyles if parents are not.

According to Statistics Canada, 17 per cent of children in Canada are overweight and nine per cent are obese.

Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children recently became the first pediatric hospital in the country to offer weight-loss surgery for 12- to 17-year-olds. So far, Sick Kids has operated on children with a body-mass index of 60. A “normal” BMI is under 25.

Murtagh and Ludwig write that severely obese children who exceed 1000 kilocalories per day are could suffer irreversible consequences like Type 2 diabetes and a significant drop in life expectancy if they won’t, or can’t, lose weight.

In cases where parenting training and counseling fail, the authors said weight-loss surgery or foster care would be the only alternatives to best serve a child with life-threatening obesity.

Mamen said it’s ‘tragic’ weight-loss surgery for children is being done, but said she hopes it’s the last resort for children.

“We have to reinforce that parents are the ones children need to listen to. Otherwise, we stand the chance of giving children the chance to say, ‘Don’t listen to your parents, listen to the experts,’” said Mamen.